Khandan Vs. Musiqi and Western Music

Khandan vs. Musiqi and Western music

Khandan and Musiqi are from what I understand complete opposites but musiqi holds many similarities to western music. Khandan is comprised of mostly sacred chants from the Koran. Khandan is a Persian term. It is a non metric chanting of the Koran without instrumental accompaniment. This is completely unlike Musiqi: Folk songs that are metric and instrumental. Musiqi is also quite westernized. In my opinion Musiqi very well emulates many things you hear in form of western music. This is all very different from the Khandan which is not instrumental or music at all really. It is purely the improvised chanting of the Koran. The disapproval of music making by orthodox Muslims is what kept the instruments out of Khandan. Khandan is considered to be more prestigious than Musiqi. Musiqi is less acceptable in this culture while Khandan is more.

In my opinion most similarities that are traced back to western music are found in the musiqi. It carries a westernized sound and form which is not found in the Khandan. The music kind of begins slow and grows to a climax with many interesting musical ideas in-between and focuses on meter and a solid tonal center. It reminds me somewhat of chamber music with how the instrumentalists interact with one another. There is a definite melodic to musiqi like many western musics. It also always has structure and form. If one was to analyze the chordal structure of this they would probably find that the progressions used are very similar to many that are used throughout common western music. To me musiqi carries many western classical ideas but also has some elements of alternative rock. The way the instruments have soloistic work over the chords with instrumental backgrounds on occasion is also similar to solo work in a jazz band. It reminds me of an improvisation solo even though the notes are not improvised in musiqi. I observed also that the